Quartus® Prime Pro Edition User Guide: Platform Designer

ID 683609
Date 2/11/2025
Public
Document Table of Contents

1.17.1. Using Precompiled Simulation Libraries

You can use the Quartus® Prime EDA Simulation Library Compiler to precompile simulation device libraries and reuse the precompiled libraries for different projects and by different users, thereby saving compilation time and disk space.

You can enable use of precompiled simulation libraries by specifying settings in the EDA Simulation Library Compiler GUI, or in batch mode with the PRECOMP_DEVICE_LIB_FILE variable at a terminal window.

When you enable use of precompiled simulation libraries, Platform Designer generates simulation scripts that include the PRECOMP_DEVICE_LIB_FILE variable. This variable can hold the following different values, depending on your simulator of choice. When you specify a precompiled simulation library file for the PRECOMP_DEVICE_LIB_FILE variable, the Quartus® Prime software reuses this precompiled file, rather than re-compiling the same device libraries every time you compile simulation sources of the project or IP.

For complete details on using precompiled simulation libraries, refer to Quartus Prime Pro Edition User Guide: Third-Party Simulation

Table 26.  Precompiled Device Library Variable Values
Supported Simulator Description
QuestaSim* Simulator2
  • “” (empty string)—no change in behavior. EDA Simulation Library Compiler compiles device libraries locally in the ./libraries folder.
  • modelsim.ini—this file must contain the mapping for device libraries. The script copies modelsim.ini to PWD (present working directory). If there is any existing local copy, that copy is backed up by the name of modelsim.ini.bak.
  • .tcl file—this file must contain the vmap commands to create mapping for device libraries. The script sources this Tcl file to generate the mapping in modelsim.ini.
Note: If the Path to the modelsim.ini or Tcl file is invalid, the script automatically switches back to the default (non-precompiled) flow of compiling device libraries locally.
Riviera-PRO*
  • “” (empty string)—no change in behavior. Device libraries compile locally in the ./libraries folder.
  • library.cfg—this file must contain the mapping for device libraries. The script skips the device compilation and links this library.cfg file to the local library.cfg.
VCS*, VCS MX
  • “” (empty string)—no change in behavior. Device libraries compile locally in the ./libraries folder.
  • *.setup—this file must contain the device library mapping.

Device library mapping moves from synopsys_sim.setup to a new device_synopsys_sim.setup file, where synopsys_sim.setup is a static file and _device_synopsys_sim.setup is dynamic. _device_synopsys_sim.setup populates at run time, depending on the value of PRECOMP_DEVICE_LIB_PATH.

Xcelium*
  • “” (empty string)—no change in behavior. Device libraries compile locally in the ./libraries folder.
  • *.lib—file must contain the device library mapping.

Device library mapping is moves from cds.lib to a new file _device.cds.lib, where cds.lib is a static file and _device.cds.lib is dynamic. _device.cds.lib populated at run time, depending on the value of PRECOMP_DEVICE_LIB_PATH.

2 QuestaSim* is the generic name for Questa Core and Questa Prime simulators from Siemens EDA.